Nash Is Missing, and So Is the Rangers' Pace

GREENBURGH, N.Y.—A blue practice jersey remained on a hanger at Rick Nash's locker Wednesday, and his helmet and shin pads stayed on the top shelf. The Rangers would be headed to Ottawa for a game, but Nash would not be joining them.

Nash is out indefinitely because of an undisclosed reason—it has been widely speculated that he sustained a concussion last week—and John Tortorella, the Rangers' coach, has moved on to a topic he thinks, or hopes, he can fix.

"I look at pace, and I look at mind-set," he said Wednesday, "and those are two things I think we're behind [on]."

After a sluggish 3-1 loss Tuesday to the Montreal Canadiens, the Rangers (8-6-1) slipped into ninth in the Eastern Conference. Tortorella considers his team to be fortunate. He actually said he considers the glass to be half-full.

What bugs Tortorella is that the Rangers aren't playing at the up-tempo pace at which he wants them to play, and only one forward line—comprised of center Derek Stepan and wingers Marian Gaborik and Carl Hagelin—was effective Tuesday.

"Everybody has injuries," Tortorella said. "You just have to play. Nash is a big part of our team. He's been a very good player for our team. But he's out."

Later, he added: "And we can't just have one line going."

The Canadiens have won 11 of 16 games under Michel Therrien, in the first season of his second stint as their coach, by clogging the neutral zone, then pouncing on mistakes. Henrik Lundqvist, the Rangers' goalie, called the tactic "extremely boring."

Gaborik said Wednesday, "It was an ugly game to watch—and an ugly game to play, obviously."

But the Rangers don't have to play that way, as far as Tortorella is concerned. They tend to be more effective when they dictate the pace, shoving their opponents backward with robust forechecking. They want to determine how games are played.

That doesn't always work. Montreal scored the game-winning goal when Lars Eller blocked defenseman Marc Staal's shot in the Canadiens' zone, leading to a 3-on-1 rush that resulted in Alex Galchenyuk's goal less than two minutes into the third period.

"It was kind of a junky game on both sides," Staal said Wednesday. "There wasn't much going on. It was one of those games where there's going to be a bounce here, a bounce there, and that's it."

The Rangers were back on the ice at their practice facility at noon Wednesday and stayed there for nearly an hour. Tortorella said later he wanted his team to practice longer and at a higher tempo. This is how he thinks they can escape their funk.

"It has to come from practice," he said. "We have really tried to think it through, tried to get rest and recovery, but we need to practice. We practiced a little bit longer. I tried to do it a little bit quicker today than we did maybe two weeks ago, but I think we have to make an adjustment there."

He then said, "Quite honestly, I think we're behind. I think we're behind in our consistency of playing with pace."

They are behind in other areas, too. Their power play, 0 for 2 on Tuesday, remains dead last in the NHL with six goals in 55 attempts. Stepan, who scored a pretty power-play goal Sunday against Washington, said that remains a work in progress.

"Any time you get a man advantage, no matter who you have in the game, you should be able to get some good looks," he said. "At times, we've had great looks. At times, we've struggled. We're getting closer and closer."

Ideally, Nash would be around to help the Rangers deliver some power-play goals, and he is certainly the type of player—6 feet 4, 213 pounds, with impeccable one-on-one skills—that would have come in handy against the Canadiens.

"Of course we miss him, but it is what it is," Gaborik said. "Whoever is out there, we have to take the game to another level. I don't know how long he's going to be out, but we're just going to have to find a way to play without him."

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